Recent Comments

obo: Byron's piece has had a paragraph excised. "As indignant rage goes, these games sites moaning about publishers dictating what they can and can’t write is read more

Tim E: In that situation, the trick is just to back off and not review the game. A little note apologising to your readers for not having read more

mathew: Sup Chris Dahlen, Word. I basically agree with you! So there we go then. Dear Journalists, Let's all do a better job together, ok? Love, read more

Chris Dahlen: Byron has a point about journo's lack of any moral right to access. If a company gets a journalist to sign an NDA - which read more

mathew: A couple of thoughts: Byron's piece on journalists is interesting, but I'm slightly worried his point will be obscured by his, er, difficult sense of read more

About GameSetWatch

GameSetWatch.com is the alt.video game weblog and sister site of Gamasutra.com. It is dedicated to collecting curious links and media for offbeat and oft-ignored games from consoles old and new, as well as from the digital download, iOS, and indie spaces.

The hive mind must bring you GameSetLinks, and it does so this time by revealing that Persona developer Atlus has also debuted an awesome new IP - that's right, it's a refrigerated UFO machine that dispenses ice cream (pictured, left!) Take that, Megaten fans!

Also wandering around here - lots of free games listed, why user-created may not always be the best, more Harmonix analysis, comparisons of console download services, and a little journalist mugging.

5 Comments

A couple of thoughts:

Byron's piece on journalists is interesting, but I'm slightly worried his point will be obscured by his, er, difficult sense of humour. I have to agree though that game sites now are taking things public that should actually be of no interest to anyone and making them these ridiculous causes célèbres, as if it'd doing anyone any good at all.

It's not. Grow up. (And that doesn't mean I in any way agree with restrictions on reviewers, btw.)

Also, I can't imagine desperately trying to win an ice cream from a UFO catcher while really hungry for one! I hope it's easy.

Byron has a point about journo's lack of any moral right to access. If a company gets a journalist to sign an NDA - which always struck me as completely antithetical to an "on the record" interview or meeting - then the journalist is at their mercy.

But this happens in all areas of journalism that don't cover the raw public record. This week a story ran on how Barack Obama's campaign controls access. Getting to know Obama is arguably more in the public interest than finding out the length of the cutscenes in MGS 4, but even there, anyone who wants real access - a private interview, that the campaign has every right not to grant - has to play by the rules. (The article is at http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=6e9f4a42-9540-4d99-aba2-25adc276c25d
.)

The solution would be to prove to game companies that they should open the gates a little wider - by proving that the readers actually want, and will demand, deeper insight into the people and processes that bring them their favorite games, and that a carefully choreographed feature list and preview clip just won't cut it.

"As indignant rage goes, these games sites moaning about publishers dictating what they can and can’t write is a bit like prostitutes claiming to have been raped – sure, we know it’s wrong and we’re very sorry. But, really, you’ve been asking for it for a long time."

It's still in the Google cache. I was wondering how that paragraph wasn't a bit of career-ending misogyny for a columnist.